Teamfight Tactics patch 13.16 notes

13.16 brings a few light balance changes and heavier adjustments to Bel'Veth, Yasuo, and Zaun.
Game Updates
Rodger “Riot Prism” Caudill

Sup Gamers,

Yasuo is getting a light rework, Demacia is getting more DEMACIA, Samira is getting some rather large nerfs, and our Legendary units are having their power lowered almost across the board. There’s a lot to get into, so let’s pop in the queue and start reading!
Rodger "Riot Prism" Caudill

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

SYSTEM CHANGES

RAPTORS


By the time you slaughter our bird-brained friends, your comp’s direction is typically locked in, so we’re making a quality of life adjustment to their final component. This should make it easier to finalize your carries’ items, especially when Raptors only drop one item (due to the change last patch that front-loads more of your items).
  • Your final item component from Raptors will be replaced by a component anvil.

REGION PORTALS


We’re changing a Bandle City portal to a Noxus one to help even out our Region distribution, giving Noxus Ryze a larger chance of appearing with axes and items in tow.

Hall of the Nine was inflating our economy far too much, quietly and quickly becoming one of the most game warping Region Portals.
  • Yordle Pordles has been moved to Noxus and renamed Fleshing Arena.
  • Hall of the Nine significantly reduced the gold given.
  • Hall of the Nine two star unit loot option now gives units whose tier is equal to the stage minus 1, rather than equal to the stage.
  • Unstable Rift has had Blue Buff temporarily disabled from appearing as the unstable item while we investigate a bug.

LARGE CHANGES

Large, like the Aurelion Sol player’s board.

TRAITS


Demacia 7 and 9 have seen little play throughout the set. We’re dramatically increasing their power by a full Radiant Item, allowing 4, and then 6 of your Demacian Elites to become supercharged—just remember to leave an item slot empty for them! Because Radiant Items are so powerful, we’re reducing some of the Elite bonus resistances.

You may notice a few champions in the traits section. That’s because we’re adjusting them so they're less reliant on the multiple casts from the Multicaster trait. We hope to see our favorite repeat casters stand alone in comps other than Multicaster-centric ones, but this should also make the Multicaster comps easier to play before Multicaster 4 comes online.

With our quality of life changes to Zaun last patch, the trait became more powerful at 2, less powerful at 4, and even stronger at 6. Having more autonomy over your Zaun modifications made the trait easier to play, and made splashing 2 Zaun to take advantage of a super-charged Zaun carry (coughs in Zeri) the most correct strategy. This was the case unless you could hit 6 Zaun and run two hyped-up Zaun or Zaun-cosplaying (Sion with Emblem) carries. By tightening the power around Zaun modifications, we’re expecting to see Zaun 4 in a better state, with Zaun 2/6 being slightly weaker.
  • Demacia Elite Count: 1/2/3/5 ⇒ 1/2/4/6
  • Demacia Elite Armor & MR: 5/25/60/125 ⇒ 5/30/50/100
  • Gunner AD% per Stack: 6/11/20% ⇒ 6/12/22%
  • Multicaster, multicast Damage Reduction: 60% ⇒ 66%
  • Sona Crescendo Bonus AS: 30/35/40% ⇒ 35/40/45%
  • Taliyah Seismic Shove Damage: 150/225/350 ⇒ 160/240/370
  • Teemo Noxious Trap Damage: 230/350/535/535 ⇒ 260/390/585/585
  • Vel’Koz Plasma Fission Damage: 210/315/520 ⇒ 230/345/560
  • Shadow Isles Mana Regen: 5/12/20 ⇒ 6/12/18
  • Shadow Isles max Health % Shield: 40/80/125% ⇒ 45/80/115%
  • Shurima Ascension bonus Health: 30% ⇒ 33%
  • Shurima 7 Ascension bonus: 20% ⇒ 25%
  • Zaun, Adaptive Implant AD, AP, and Omnivamp: 25% ⇒ 30%
  • Zaun, Robotic Arm Proc Chance: 50% ⇒ 40%
  • Zaun, Unstable Chemtank Overcharge Health Explosion: 45% ⇒ 35%
  • Zaun, Hextech Exoskeleton max Health Heal 10% ⇒ 12%
  • Zaun, Hextech Exoskeleton now cleanses all debuffs, including Burn, Wound, Shred, Sunder, and Mana-Reave
  • Zaun, Hextech Exoskeleton Overcharge damage no longer triggers when Sion revives

UNITS: TIER 1


We’re adjusting Kayle to make her a more playable unit in Stage 2 even if not rerolling her, but reducing her cap since her reroll comp has ascended too far.

Due to how resistances work, Samira’s armor reduction lets her scale very well into late-game (typically you have more in the late game, but Samira can turn even that into 0, and sometimes below 0). We're pulling power out of the Armor reduction and putting it into the base spell so that she can be a good single carry unit with some utility, without completely negating tanks.
  • Kayle Divine Ascent Base On-Hit Damage: 33/44/66% AP ⇒ 35/50/75% AP
  • Kayle Divine Ascent, Ascended Wave Damage: 33/44/66% AP ⇒ 20/25/40% AP
  • Orianna: now resumes attacking more quickly after casting Command: Protext
  • Samira Flair AD ratio: 175% ⇒ 200/200/210%
  • Samira Flair Armor reduction: 20/25/30 ⇒ 10/15/20
  • Samira Flair can no longer reduce Armor below 0

UNITS: TIER 2


Ashe is currently a Last Whisper armor sunder bot or a Morellonomicon burn bot. At times when you’re highrolling your items, she can aspire to be both at once. We want to make her more viable as a carry than a support unit, because true Queens aren’t supporting characters.

Swain at 1 and 2 stars alongside Samira early game is powerful, but the 3-star Swain still isn't worth it—I guess you could say the early bird gets the win streak. We’re nerfing the early bird, but bringing up the power of 3-star Swain in the hopes he can make it as a late night owl in these fast 8/9 lobbies. The starting Mana also hits the lower star version of Swain more, since Swain has a large enough base tankiness at 3-stars to guarantee that first cast.

We tried making Teemo smarter, but it resulted in Teemo being more positioning-reliant to hit those high-value Noxious Traps. When positioned well, he could reliably hit more targets, but it also made him much more difficult to play, which wasn't our intention. So, like your top laner in our sister game claiming they have the Darius counter-pick, we’re making Teemo dumb again… but hey, at least he’s still easy to play.
  • Ashe AS: 0.7 ⇒ 0.75
  • Ashe Mana nerf: 30/60 ⇒ 20/70
  • Ashe Volley AD ratio: 150/150/160% ⇒ 160/160/170%
  • Galio Shield of Durand Damage Reduction: 20/20/30% ⇒ 25/25/35%
  • Kled Skaaaaaaarl! Stacking AS: 60/65/70/75% ⇒ 65/70/75/80%
  • Swain starting Mana nerf: 30/70 ⇒ 20/70
  • Swain Demonflare Transform Health: 450/500/550 ⇒ 375/450/650
  • Swain is now classified as a Magic Tank in the Inspect Panel
  • Taliyah Seismic Shove Damage: 150/225/350 ⇒ 160/240/370
  • Teemo Noxious Trap Damage: 230/350/535/535 ⇒ 260/390/585/585
  • Teemo Noxious Trap multicast mushroom bounce logic reverted to 13.14. Mushrooms will now bounce to a random target after the first.

UNITS: TIER 3


Our changes to Garen should also make it easier to play him before he hits 3-stars. But even if you aren’t rerolling our favorite embodiment of a fidget spinner, he’ll still make good use of the occasional AD-heavy Radiant Item in your vertical Demacia comp—go chase the recently buffed Demacia 7/9!

We’re taking a pass on several Shadow Isles units to offset nerfs to the trait, which overperforms when using the Shadow Isles Emblem well. Kalista is but one of the buffs to this end.
  • Garen Judgement AD%: 75/75/85% ⇒ 80/82/85%
  • Kalista Pierce and Rend spear Damage: 16/24/40 ⇒ 18/27/45
  • Sona Crescendo Bonus AS: 30/35/40% ⇒ 35/40/45%
  • Vel’Koz Plasma Fission Damage: 210/315/520 ⇒ 230/345/560
  • Vel’Koz Plasma Fission Missile will now follow the initial target.
  • Vel’Koz Plasma Fission: If the target dies while the missile is in-flight, the missile will travel to that location before splitting.

UNITS: TIER 4


Shen is REALLY tanky with Ionia active, but not great outside of that. We’re balancing his power levels to make sure he’s worth itemizing outside of Ionia/Invokers, with the goal of a power neutral change for Ionia and Invoker boards, but 10% stronger when he's not on Ionia/Invoker boards. Because we’re buffing him, he’s getting pretty large, so his model will reflect that—just kidding, we’re just making sure our frontliners have more beef to front with to reflect their frontiness.

Yasuo has a problem with reliance on a certain something. I’m not referring to his preference in drink—also problematic—I’m instead referring to his reliance on Rapid Firecannon to allow his spell to hit backliners. It’s time to kick the habit for good, and in doing so we’re recruiting a strong support network of better AD and AP ratios, while also taking out his spell’s interaction with the item entirely. Because he’ll have to be closer to the fray to get the best out of items like Titan’s Resolve, Hextech Gunblade, etc, we’re giving him a bit more Health.

Zeri is the League of Legends patch notes writer’s favorite champion. I get giddy any time we get to nerf her. But petty stabs aside (we’re all pals here), Zaun has had a renaissance in patch 13.15 both due to the individual strength of their carries, and the increased autonomy in modifications. While we nerfed some of these overperforming mods in the TRAITS section, the units still thrive without them (Zeri in Freljord comps, Urgot in Deadeye comps), so we’re shipping some lighter nerfs to keep them (and Riot Riru) in check.
  • Aphelios: Increased the speed of Moonlight Sigil’s moon blast
  • Aphelios Chakram AD ratio: 8/8/30% ⇒ 10/10/30%
  • Lux Torrent of Light can no longer reduce Magic Resist below zero.
  • Lux Torrent of Light now turns faster while casting her Ability
  • Shen Ionia Bonus - Damage Reduction: 10% ⇒ 9%
  • Shen Ki Barrier Self Shield Amount: 350/450/2000 ⇒ 400/500/2000
  • Shen is now slightly larger
  • Yasuo Last Breath Range no longer scales with Attack Range
  • Yasuo Health: 950 ⇒ 1000
  • Yasuo Last Breath AD ratio: 475/475/1500% ⇒ 500/500/1500%
  • Yasuo Last Breath AP ratio: 50/75/300% ⇒ 55/85/300%
  • Urgot Disdain Shield Amount: 400/500/1200 ⇒ 375/450/1200
  • Urgot Disdain AD ratio: 250% ⇒ 225%
  • Zeri Surge Duration: 9/9/15 ⇒ 8/8/15
  • Zeri Chain Lightning AD ratio: 50% ⇒ 45%

UNITS: TIER 5


Aatrox is a great addition to most boards because of the revive utility of Darkin, but as an itemized carry he's a bit unreliable. These changes will further increase his reliability if you want him to carry (and not just die to buff your other units). 12 seconds of world ending means Aatrox will get 3 slams out if he isn’t CC’d during the duration.

We’re making adjustments to Heimerdinger’s Technogenius upgrades to ensure each upgrade has a viable build scenario, and none are too good to pass up. Mechano-Swarm is an upgrade that’s all but necessary for Heimerdinger’s success. With it, rockets hit many units, instantly applying burn and Shrink Module's shred to half the board. By reducing the number of rockets, we also reduce its spread, making Mechano-Swarm hit fewer units until the frontline dies.

Ryze is getting a significant buff in Bandle City, Piltover, and Targon, and a nerf in Ionia, where his healing and mana are receiving hits. In reducing his 3-star damage, we’re mostly allowing you the chance to see what happens when your whole team is empowered to 5.0 Attack Speed, instead of just having the spell wipe the board.
  • Aatrox World Ender Duration: 10 ⇒ 12 seconds
  • Aatrox, Darkin Health: 400 ⇒ 350
  • Aatrox is now immune to damage and untargetable when respawning
  • Ahri Essence Thief Mana Reave: 30% ⇒ 20%
  • Ahri Essence Thief Damage: 100/150/1000 ⇒ 90/135/1000
  • Ahri Essence Thief Essence Wave (big boom) Damage: 250/375/3000 ⇒ 230/350/1888
  • Bel’Veth Royal Maelstrom bonus Damage Per Strike: 20/30/50 ⇒ 15/25/50
  • Bel’Veth Royal Maelstrom number of Strikes: 6 per 100% Total AS ⇒ 6 + 5 per 100% bonus AS
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Repair-o-matic REWORKED: Repair duration is now a flat 7 seconds at all levels
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Repair-o-matic: Stacking multiple copies of Repair-o-matic now instead grant the Apex Turret bonus Armor and Magic Resist
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Repair-o-matic 1 Count: 10 Armor and Magic Resist
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Repair-o-matic 2 Count: 50 Armor and Magic Resist
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Repair-o-matic 3 Count: 100 Armor and Magic Resist
  • Heimerdinger, Technogenius Mechano-Swarm Rockets Fired: 7 ⇒ 5
  • Bandle City Ryze will now star up pulled units to at least Ryze’s star level
  • Ionia Ryze Mana buff: 60/120 ⇒ 50/125
  • Ionia Ryze Damage: 175/275/3500 ⇒ 175/275/1500
  • Ionia Ryze Heal: 400/600/3000 ⇒ 400/500/3000
  • Piltover Ryze % Damage Share when within enforcer zone: 15/20/500% ⇒ 15/30/500%
  • Targon Ryze starting Mana buff: 10/100 ⇒ 30/100
  • Targon Ryze max Health % Damage: 18/25/100% ⇒ 18/30/100%
  • Zaun Ryze Mana nerf: 50/90 ⇒ 40/100
  • Senna, Redeemer AS Per Shield: 8% ⇒ 6%
  • Sion Glory in Death Reanimation max Health % Decay per second: 15/10/0% ⇒ 20/13/0%

AUGMENTS


Portable Forge’s power lies in hitting the perfect item to give you early tempo, which scales well into the late game as you pass it to your carry. We’re happy with the power of the Augment mid-game, but we’re limiting your options earlier on, when you have more room to flex around the Artifact you select. In that same vein, later in the game, your comp’s direction is more forged so we’ll give you more options to ensure at least one is not only usable, but ideal in your comp.

We’re nerfing All That Shimmers which seems to be the strongest Augment at 2-1 in the below section, but it’s worth calling it out here.
  • Ascension Damage Amp: 45% ⇒ 50%
  • Challenger Crown now grants: Rapid Firecannon ⇒ Hand of Justice
  • Dueling Gunners initial Attack Speed: 5% ⇒ 8%
  • Endless Hordes Gold 8 ⇒ 6
  • NEW: Added Endless Hordes+ at 4-2 only, which gives 9 gold.
  • Frequent Flier rolls required: 10 ⇒ 8
  • Haunted Shell (Shadow Isles) Stacking Resistances: 10 ⇒ 13
  • Lategame Specialist can no longer be offered with Level Up! (and vice versa)
  • Mana Burn has been re-enabled
  • Parting Gifts shield is now added after the item is granted, rather than before.
  • Perfected Repetition (Multicaster) AP Per Cast: 5 ⇒ 6
  • Perfected Repetition (Multicaster) Max AP: 70 ⇒ 90
  • Portable Forge Armory Choices 3 ⇒ 2/3/4 (based on stage)
  • Riftwalk Ability Power Per Cast: 35 ⇒ 32
  • Return on Investment rolls required: 22 ⇒ 20
  • It Pays to Learn I/II/III Gold: 10/16/20 ⇒ 8/12/16 (XP unchanged)
  • REWORKED Shimmering Inventors: Piltover Unit Bonus Per 10 Gold: 10% AS ⇒ 8% Bonus Damage
  • Shimmering Inventors Maximum Bonus at 50 Gold: 50% AS ⇒ 40% Bonus Damage
  • Shurima’s Legacy minimum Sun Disc Damage: 180 ⇒ 160
  • Shurima’s Legacy Max Sun Disc Damage: 900 ⇒ 800
  • The Boss AS & AP per Sit Up: 40% ⇒ 45%
  • The Boss now cleanses Wounds (healing debuff) when doing sit-ups
  • Two Healthy Health: 100 ⇒ 111
  • What The Forge: You’re now slightly less likely to get multiple copies of the same item, especially Obsidian Cleaver.

ARTIFACTS AND SHIMMERSCALE ITEMS


We’ve seen many of our Shimmerscale (All That Shimmers) Items overperform, especially when used to kick-start your econ at 2-1. We’re pulling back power on most of them, but there may be more nerfs in the future as early econ advantages are often more impactful in higher levels of play.
  • Draven’s Axe Cashout Gold: 10 ⇒ 9
  • Gambler’s Blade Attack Speed: 20% ⇒ 15%
  • Gambler’s Blade Chance For Gold: 7% ⇒ 6%
  • Goldmancer’s Staff Ability Power: 25 ⇒ 20
  • Goldmancer’s Staff Mana: 20 ⇒ 0
  • Needlessly Big Gem Health: 600 ⇒ 500
  • Mogul’s Mail Health: 350 ⇒ 150
  • Trickster’s Glass Armor, Magic Resist, and Attack Speed: 15 ⇒ 10
  • Trickster’s Glass Mana Increase: 20% ⇒ 30%
  • Zhonya’s Paradox Ability Power: 30 ⇒ 45

SMALL CHANGES

Small, like my board.

UNITS


If Poppy’s putting gets any better, she’s going to have to open up her own miniature golf course: Poppy’s Put Put.

If Azir had a band it’d be called Arise Against the Machine.
  • Poppy 4-star Steadfast Hammer should now more consistently hit large clumps of units
  • Viego Armor and MR: 25 ⇒ 30
  • Azir Arise! Damage: 100/150/550 ⇒ 105/160/550

ARTIFACTS


  • Death’s Defiance Attack Speed: 30% ⇒ 25%
  • Death’s Defiance BUGFIX: Bleed no longer gets cleansed by Edge of Night

TOOLTIPS


  • Zaun now states that benching a champion will remove its Zaun mod
  • The Two Healthy and Three’s a Crowd Augments now specify that only unique champions count towards the Health bonus

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where Recombobulator could cause Strongest Unit calculations to behave weirdly.
  • Fixed a bug where Rek’Sai’s spell was scaling twice as much as intended from damage amp
  • Not dead yet: Yorick’s Graveyard no longer grants an item when a player triggers Last Stand or Final Reserves.
  • Champions granted by Stars Are Born are now properly starred up in ghost armies.
  • Rolling For Days Augment no longer fails to make the first reroll after a carousel round free.
  • Shimmer Injector now correctly prevents being executed before it procs.
  • Outrageous: Rek’Sai will no longer execute Taric if he is shielding her target when she tries to execute them.
  • Thresh’s Sanctum now works in Hyper Roll
  • Crown of Demacia can no longer be reforged in Double Up.
  • You don’t bench your MVP: Crown of Demacia can no longer be used on benched units in Double Up.
  • Zed now gets the correct bonus from Ionia 9
  • Senna and Sion can now apply the burn from Morellonomicon with their Abilities
  • Bonus health on Chem Modded from Chemtech Enhancements Augment will now be updated immediately when a chem mod is removed
  • Teemo 1-star now has the correct spell damage value
  • Glasc Industries now correctly grants gold when you build a craftable emblem on a unit of the same trait.
  • Locked in: Fixed a mission that could not be completed as it required selling the T-Hex
  • Dedication will no longer break if you field 4 units of a trait that has no emblem.
  • Undeserved stardom: Fixed an exploit that could allow you to have a 4-star Yordle without having three 3-stars actively fielded.
  • If multiple Blacksmith’s Gloves roll Trickster’s Glass, they will now all clone the correct unit.
  • PROJECT: Abyssia Spamming Taunt (Ctrl+2) animation no longer causes the planet to disappear
  • Whisker’s Mutant Lab - Purple VFX no longer persists for a few seconds when scouting.
  • Chibi Little Devil Teemo is no longer glowing white for players on Very Low graphic settings.
  • Gloop’s eyes and mouth have been fixed during their Taunt (Ctrl+2) animation. The fix impacts these variants:Golden Custard, Shrimp, Hearty Soup, Peachy